Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimsey47
I've been big on cleaning cars for a while and always saw clay bars but never had anyone go more into detail on HOW to apply. I know I can google but what is the best approach from those in this forum that have used it? Do you do the whole body etc?  |
You thoroughly clean the car by conventional means. Afterwards you wet the car and run the claybar over the surface. Contaminants get lodged in the surface of the clay. (This is why you thoroughly clean so you are not dragging grit) You roll the clay over onto itself every now and then so a clean surface is always facing the car. You will want to keep the car wet at all times, if not the clay just grabs onto the finish and won't want to move and thus won't do its job. The water is the lubricant. You will spray the car down often to keep the area you are working with wet.
Some people tell you to use quick detailer or the like as the lubricant. In my opinion these people either aren't putting enough effort in or are getting checks from Meguiars. Seriously, in order to properly clay bar a car it takes many passes. This isn't a once over kind of thing. You would go through an obscene amount of expensive quick detailer if you truly used it as a lubricant, especially on days with little humidity. Would it be ideal? Sure, but so would washing the car with distilled water, and that still isn't as expensive a proposition.
You do the entire painted surface of the car plus the glass, but realise unless you cleaned very thoroughly the lower body panels might still have some nasty grit on them. You'll probably want to use an older claybar here and save the fresh ones for more visible surfaces on the off chance sand like grains of something unfun get caught in the clay. I'd rather have that get drug on the downward facing part of my bumper than my hood.
Oh and if you drop your claybar, you f'ed up. You just turned it into a wheel or house window cleaning device. Don't let it touch clearcoat again. As you might expect, you want to keep a good handle on that thing and don't let it slip. They're not cheap.